Grantor-Grantee Index Definition and Legal Meaning

On this page, you'll find the legal definition and meaning of Grantor-Grantee Index, written in plain English, along with examples of how it is used.

What is Grantor-Grantee Index?

(n) Grantor-Grantee Index is the record of deeds maintained with the County Recorder or Recorder of deeds containing the index of all recorded transfer title deeds.

History and Meaning of Grantor-Grantee Index

The Grantor-Grantee Index is a vital tool used in real estate transactions in the United States. It’s a public record of deeds that contains the transfer of title deeds between the grantor, the person or entity selling the property, and the grantee, the person or entity purchasing the property. The index is maintained by the county recorder or recorder of deeds and plays a significant role in ensuring the legality of property ownership.

The purpose of the Grantor-Grantee Index is to allow title searchers to identify transactions of a property and trace the chain of ownership back to the original grantor. Initially, this record was kept as handwritten registers, but with the advent of technology, most counties have now migrated to digitized versions of the record. The index is organized by grantor and grantee names, allowing users to perform a search quickly.

Examples of Grantor-Grantee Index

  1. John and Mary purchased a house in 2002, and they sold it to David in 2009. To ensure that the property's title is clear, David would need to search the Grantor-Grantee Index to trace the title's chain from the original grantor to himself.

  2. A real estate lawyer wants to establish a client’s ownership of their property. The lawyer searches the Grantor-Grantee Index to ascertain the property’s chain of previous ownership.

  3. Sarah moved to a new city and wanted to know whether the seller of her new house had the legal rights to sell the property. She performs a title search using the Grantor-Grantee Index provided by the local county recorder's office.

Legal Terms Similar to Grantor-Grantee Index

  1. Chain of Title - The chain of title is the sequence of historical ownership information that shows the transfer of title from the original grantor to the current owner.

  2. Recorder of Deeds - The county office responsible for maintaining public land records that establish ownership rights and interests.

  3. Land Registry - A government agency responsible for documenting and managing title information on land parcels, buildings, and other real estate properties.